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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25615225">An Assassin’s Tears</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Magi: Adventure of Sinbad (Anime), Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Brotp, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Suicidal Thoughts, mentions of self harm, mostly about mental health problems</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:14:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,809</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25615225</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Vittel can’t help the worry clawing in him when he hears his ch- Ja’far, when he hears Ja’far crying in the middle of the night. The reason to <i>why</i> is much more frightening he finds.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mahad &amp; Vittel &amp; Jafar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>An Assassin’s Tears</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I miss Vittel and Mahad man. Such Sad.</p><p>Also hurt/comfort isn’t something I’m good at, or used to, so don’t expect quality stuff good enough to make your heart twist. XD</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The more Vittel listened the more concerned he became.</p><p>The quiet cries and sobs, echoing off the dark wooden surfaces. The former assassin frowned as he heard what sounded like a muffled word mushed in with the child’s cry.</p><p>He hadn’t heard the cry before. He hadn’t heard <i>Ja’far</i> cry before.</p><p>It sounded...human. In a way his chief wasn’t a normal person, raised by blood and knives, tears and screams. He didn’t know if Ja’far would be able to fix himself completely, hell, Vittel didn’t know if he himself would be able to fix his own head.</p><p>Most people have barriers, stops and locks that hinders them from committing acts of murder, but if you’re taken by Sham Lash’s sharp claws and fangs you quickly let go of them.</p><p>Ja’far is a child. Young...but not innocent.</p><p>Vittel wondered how that would’ve ended up. If Ja’far had other parents, if he wouldn’t have been born into the misery stained life of an assassin, how would he be? Would he be smiling when something good happened, laughing with friends and crying when he got hurt? Would he never have even thought about murder?</p><p>Vittel smiled sadly, maybe somewhere it is like that, happy and hopeful, smiling and <i>bright.</i> The opposite of the life they climbed out of.</p><p>The quiet cries continued, and Vittel sighed, scratching the scar on his nose. He should go get Ja’far.</p><p>He doesn’t think Ja’far is going to listen, the young boy will probably swear, push him away and maybe he’ll even try to hurt him.</p><p>Vittel smiled. It was a humorous thought, even if it could very well be true.</p><p>Standing up in the darkness he ignored the shifting of Mahad’s burly body, stepping over it with light feet. Following the echos of Ja’far’s now hoarse voice he looked through the dim light that manages to dwell under deck. Ignoring the swaying he let himself walk straight to Ja’far without stressing over if he should do it.</p><p>Knocking on the door he walked inside, avoiding the sharp knife that burrowed into the wood of the door.</p><p><i>“Out.”</i> Ja’far hissed. Vittel has to agree with Sinbad that the younger assassin had traits that had been borrowed by a pissed off snake at times. He hoped the snake would keep its fangs capped.</p><p>Deep down Vittel knew that some of Ja’far’s stress would be eased if the boy felt safe. If Ja’far didn’t have to worry about attacks from any form of assault, if he didn’t have to worry about getting hurt then one of the stress filled weights that held him down would be gone.</p><p>He knew he couldn’t be that safety. But he wanted to try.</p><p>Walking up to Ja’far he could see the fresh tears in the flickering candle light, could see the eyes gleaming with hate and fear, and Vittel could only stare at the abstract reflection of himself in those grey eyes.</p><p>Ja’far was glaring, quite intensely as well, and Vittel gave the most comforting smile he could, holding out a hand to the younger boy.</p><p>Staring at the hand Ja’far looked down at the ground, battling with himself before turning away, ready to sprint out to hide somewhere else.</p><p>Vittel stopped him with an outstretched arm, wrapping around Ja’far’s waist, holding him still. The boy looked at Vittel in disbelief, and frankly, disgust.</p><p>His lips parted to utter words Rurumu had forbidden, and Vittel looked at him with a look that made Ja’far flinch, and stay still.</p><p>It wasn’t a mean look, or an angry one,<br/>
Vittel guessed that it had a more sad tone to it, sad and tired, the usual look of happiness that coated Vittel’s face gone, leaving the smudge of seriousness to peak through.</p><p>Ja’far looked down at the ground, and Vittel could see his red eyes, puffy from crying and the scratches on his pale arms,  the light sheen reflecting on the wetness covering freckled cheeks. </p><p>“Ja’far...” The words sounded muffled, stuffy when they escaped him, the tight atmosphere around them pressed them, heavy air pushing against him and his body, pushing against his lungs as if he was struggling to het his head over the strong sea waves.</p><p>Sighing he scratched the scar on his nose again. “Let’s go back to bed, so we can get some sleep.” </p><p>Ja’far clenched his fist, to be fair his whole body seemed to be tense, every nerve on edge.</p><p>“...is Mahad there?” The words were so quiet that Vittel had a hard time hearing them, but he still did, and blinked, confused.</p><p>“Of course he is, why wouldn’t he be?”</p><p>Ja’far kept quiet, poking at the arms holding him still, and Vittel let go of him, although the was worried the boy would run off.</p><p>“...I don’t want Mahad to leave.”</p><p>This made Vittel spiral into more confusion. <i>Leave?</i>What on earth did Ja’far mean by that?</p><p>Vittel wanted to ask, but Ja’far turned his gaze away, giving the walls a shock of bloodlust and a deadly glare, and it could’ve been amusing in a way, seeing such a small child be so fierce, but Vittel had seen the look before, and knew something was troubling Ja’far.</p><p>He hadn’t seen many things bother Ja’far, mostly it was a few things that did that he had to face in his daily life, which made him bitter and bold, but currently Ja’far was not bothered as much as he was angry, and frustrated.</p><p>Whatever was ‘troubling’ the boy had to be something grave.</p><p>He wanted Ja’far to tell him what this thing was, but he didn’t wanna add to the pressure in the room.</p><p>“Should we go back to Mahad? I promise you he isn’t...gone.” Vittel swallowed thickly when saying the word ‘gone’. It sounded <i>wrong</i> in a way he couldn’t explain. Ja’far looked back, eyes back to their normal state and Ja’far nodded, white hair flying around his soft face.</p><p>Ja’far quietly slinked up close, taking Vittel’s much larger hand, squeezing and silently took the lead, walking briskly but slowly out of the room, after blowing out the candle, and Vittel squeezed back, smiling. A warmth crept up inside of him, something comforting and familiar.</p><p>Ja’far almost tip-toed over the floorboards, sneaking around better than when he had been on missions, and Vittel wondered why. Ja’far could be hard to understand, but today he was just acting <i>odd.</i></p><p>He didn’t knock when entering the small small room the three of them slept in, and Vittel went inside. Ja’far waited, standing on the edge of the room, standing in the doorway, shifting. </p><p>“Mahad...”</p><p>Vittel watched as a heap of blankets and pillows began to move, limbs appearing from beneath before Mahad’s peeked his eyes out. He turned his head to Ja’far. Blinking slowly and shifting, he caught Ja’far’s worried gaze.</p><p>“I...don’t-“ Ja’far stopped, walking over the doorframe and getting closer, falling into the heap of blankets and pillows, in between Mahad and Vittel. Mahad seemed to sense something was off by the odd demeanour, he showed a few pillows away, leaving a small space next to him clear if Ja’far wanted to be nearer.</p><p>Ja’far huddled up next to the large man, his hands resting on Mahad’s muscular arm, borrowing his warmth.</p><p>Letting his head bonk into the muscular arm with a surprising amount of noise the boy finally whispered something.</p><p>“I don’t want you to leave.” Ja’far squeezed the large hand, hiding his face. He tapped on the large scars that Mahad had gotten on his hands.</p><p>Vittel shifts his attention to Mahad. “I do hope you know what he’s talking about, for I have no idea.” He grits through his teeth.</p><p>Mahad nodded after a tick from a clock, and he looked down at Ja’far. He took of the veil that hung heavy over his mouth, letting his somewhat scarred face be shown. He wasn’t a pretty sight for many, but for Ja’far and Vittel there was beauty to be found in plenty. Mahad was their brother at arms, a caring friend and comrade who they had yet to scorn for something as <i>frail</i> as looks. Their relationship mattered more than that.</p><p>Patting the fluffy white hair Mahad seemed...embarrassed, no blush stained his cheeks but Vittel could see the shift in his body.</p><p>“Mahad could you please—“</p><p>Mahad’s eye twitched. He brought up his hands to sign, and Vittel took a deep breath when seeing it all. He felt sad, angry at himself for not realising and confused as to why Mahad didn’t tell him.</p><p>“Suicide?” The words rolled off his tongue with an ease he himself felt disgusted by, and he felt a thick sludge of slime form in his throat. He didn’t have to ask why, the life in Sham Lash had driven many over the edge, they had both seen it. And the shift, the emotional weight of it all, a weight neither of them were prepared to have to bear, always came crashing down when something like this appeared.</p><p>Vittel had seen Ja’far’s struggle with it all, the crying, the frequent bursts of panic, the cuts and scars, but he had never seen anything like that from Mahad, never seen any indication to it. To be honest, Mahad had seemed even more content and even happy these past few days.</p><p>Red eyes trailed over a clenched fist, Vittel moved closer to his two friends.</p><p>His vision was blurry, it shifted from Ja’far’s puffy grey eyes and trembling form to Mahad’s stoic face. Vittel didn’t even know if Mahad’s could smile, or if he could move his facial features at all but the silent stare made him feel uncomfortable, the way he didn’t seem sad, didn’t seem terrified, didn’t seem like anything. Vittel felt disgusted in a way, that Mahad’s didn’t care about his own <i>life</i> enough to at least give them some sort of clue to what he was feeling.</p><p>He didn’t know if he should speak, if he should offer pity or anything. He didn’t know how to. So instead he sat close to them both, Mahad and Ja’far looked at him with curiosity. He didn’t have anything in mind when pulling the heap of blankets closer, arranging the pillows so that they could at least be close. If Vittel noticed any odd behaviours from Mahad he could try stopping them. Hopefully Ja’far would be fast asleep if it happened, he didn’t want the boy to witness anything like that.</p><p>When Vittel pulled the blankets over himself he didn’t think Mahad and Ja’far would help, but they all helped to place and fix with the blankets so that they all would be comfortable under it, and Ja’far soon fell asleep, face cuddled up to Mahad’s scared up back, a small pale hand clutching the white fabric of Mahad’s trousers.</p>
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